The Farm Girl

Chapter 1

"Ally... Ally! Please wake up."

"Not now Shelly, It's early."

My bones can definitely feel that it is still early, even the roosters are not yet up and I know for a fact that they are awake even before the sun rises. Damn I cannot even count how many times I was woken up by a rooster. There early morning crowing serves as my alarm clock, this is really the downside of living in a farm.

"Ally please, you have to wake up we need to go."

Shelly and I grew up together, the perks of our parents being business partners and running the farm means that we grew up in a big house together with her siblings. Shelly is the only girl in the family, her brothers are helping out with the farm. Sometimes I envy her because she has a big family where in my case, being an only child I have no choice but to follow my parents footstep in running the farm. No wonder they insisted that I should take Agriculture Management for my course, when Shelly is free to choose fashion merchandising. Our farm business is flourishing; my mother works with Marketing and Operations, while Shelly's mom is in charge of Finance. Both are dads and together with her brothers are in charge in the daily work of taking care of the animals and growing of produce. This means that it is their task to ensure that we deliver a world-class quality of vegetables, meat and dairy. Our clients are well known supermarkets, restaurant chains and even hotel.

The farm is located in South of Oxford in Iowa, my parents and Shelly's parents both decided to go into farming business since they inherited 20 acres of land from our grandparents. They took a loan from the bank and Gallager-Smith Farm was born. In 3 years they were able to return the bank's investment and also acquired nearby lands. At first it was just our parents who are working in the farm, I can still remember my father waking up at 2 am so that he can start his day, he particularly likes planting seeds and taking care of the vegetables. Don Smith, also known as Shelly's Dad is a veterinarian so he has the right background in taking care of animals.

It is summer vacation so we are back here in Iowa and God knows what activities our parents have for us. Unlike Shelly, who is always excited to help in the Farm; I feel different, I feel that there is a much better opportunity for me out there and not here in the Farm. Don't get me wrong, I love our business and I am always grateful because my parents were able to provide me with all the finer things in life, I just feel that Farm life is not for me.

"It still early Shelly, please five more minutes." I groan

"Ally, they are already downstairs and starting their day."

I can feel her nudging me non-stop.

"Okay! Okay! I give up. I am up."

"Yes! Hurry up Ally everyone is eating their breakfast."

I just nodded and went straight to my bathroom to do my business. For goodness sake we just got back home and already we are working! I just want to lay on my bed all day and read books. If there is one thing I love to do more than anything is to read! I remember when the first Harry Potter book came out; I spend two days locked up in my bedroom just to finish the book. Food was being brought up and I didn't even take a bath. My mother came bursting to my room to demand that I took a shower, eat and stop the nonsense. It was a good thing that I finish the whole book, otherwise there would have been war. Reading was definitely not just some nonsense. It was my greatest pleasure, some girls like Shelly like clothes, make up and cellphone but not me. Give me a hardbound novel and I am in cloud nine.

My mother and I have a difficult relationship, we don't see eye to eye especially with my fascination with books and writing. She is always busy I get that but when I try to tell her that I wanted to write books, she exploded.